PREFACE. IX 



mence. However just it may be in general terms to speak 

 of the animals of any country under the three heads of 

 Residents, Periodical Visitants, and Irregular Visitants or 

 Stragglers, it must be obvious to every one that between 

 the last two there exists so little boundary, that there are 

 many species of which it is difficult to say whether they 

 belong to the former, or to the latter of these divisions*. 

 Every intermediate degree of frequency, as regards the 

 visits of different species of Birds to this country, may 

 be found between what constitutes an annual migration 

 and a solitary appearance. There are some which occur 

 most years in greater or less numbers, though not with 

 that unerring punctuality which attends the movements of 

 our more regular migrants ; there are others which only 

 shew themselves at uncertain and more distant intervals; 

 there are others, again, which have not been observed in 

 more than a few instances ; and of these last a series might 

 easily be made out in which such instances became con- 

 tinually fewer, till the number was reduced ultimately to 

 one. Now under such circumstances it is clearly impos- 

 sible to draw the line which Dr. Fleming has attempted 

 to point out. For this reason, in the present work, the 

 species above alluded to are noticed exactly in the same 

 manner as those which are permanently resident in this 

 country, or which visit it at fixed intervals. In so doing 

 there is no wish to raise them to a higher rank in the 

 Fauna than they really deserve. They are still considered 

 only as Stragglers to a greater or less extent. But if it be 

 the object of a Fauna to present naturalists with an account 



* Dr. Fleming himself must have experienced some difficulty in determining 

 what species were to be "degraded to the rank of Stragglers," judging from the 

 circumstance, that some which he has only briefly noticed as of this character, 

 have in fact occurred in this country oftener than, many quite as often as, others 

 described at length in the body of his work. 



